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Garden With Color and Flair

Fearlessness is a fine quality in a gardener. When nature itself is your canvas and creating your own place in it is your main aesthetic purpose, it is good to have a well-developed sense of style and a bold hand with color. John Rufenacht, an interior designer in Kansas City, brought his confidence, experience, and sense of humor to bear when he carved out a clearing in the woods at Evening Place, his weekend home near Clinton, Missouri, which he has owned since 2003. John’s design sensibilities come sparkling through in his garden.

Although he designs interiors for many clients with large homes, “I love great small spaces,” he says. “We all gravitate to them, to our own little nests.” The designer’s home, a square, three-story stone tower, is the centerpiece of the one-acre property.

John drew up the plans for the buildings and grounds himself. “I really did it almost like an interior,” he says. The garden is in large part defined by the relationship of the house to the graceful outbuildings. A small structure dedicated to a library of books on plants and design—with a sofa for naps—is John’s favorite place in the summer for its view of the garden through wide-open French doors. A handsome English conservatory anchors one side of the courtyard behind the house. Interesting materials and meticulous craftsmanship make each building a work of art. A stone chapel with stained-glass windows by a Missouri artist is nestled into the trees at the edge of the property. John also added a fantastic, whimsical bright red gypsy wagon, made to order as a luxuriously appointed little guest cottage.

Red flowers gleam everywhere in the dappled light under tall oaks and hickories. “Red has always been my favorite color, and it’s the only true neutral color,” John says. “I think it goes with literally everything.” Ruffled red mandevilla blooms in a never-ending show in the courtyard, accompanied by flashing trumpets of scarlet amaryllis. John picks up the beat with red-and-white pillows and deftly adds splashes of contrasting yellow here and there.

The design has more than a touch of formality here in the country, but John is relaxed about it all. He has surrounded himself with comfortable spaces, colorful plants, and furnishings he loves.

“It has been a real test plot,” he says. He carved out a deep flowerbed on one side of the library, filling it with daylilies, salvias, coneflowers, lilies, and other sun-loving perennials. A rich and varied tapestry of hostas, hellebores, epimediums, and ferns lights up the shade along a path under the trees. John constantly adds new plants to the collection.

“As an interior designer, of course you are impatient—I’m terribly impatient,” he says. But he enjoys the process of watching his garden grow and change. Trumpet vines now romp across the rustic pergola over the back porch. Old-fashioned hollyhocks come up in different places every year.

“It would be sad if the garden looked exactly the same year after year,” he admits. Evening Place is named for the idea that each day really begins in the evening, when the cares of one day fade and the possibilities of the next take shape. As the light fades, “You set your heart and mind toward the next day,” John muses. In this beautiful place, the twilight hour is certainly a time to savor.

Enclosed on all sides, this area is furnished like a gracious living room. “I don’t know of any garden that is interesting without some sort of structure,” John says. “Within that, you can be as free as you want, but it takes some sort of structure to balance the freedom.”